Authority hurls unexpected curveball

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014 — Our elected officials on the Susanville City Council and the Lassen County Board of Supervisors need to carefully consider all the implications and ramifications of a request from the Honey Lake Valley Recreation Authority to prepay the construction costs for a community pool in Susanville.

The authority, created through a joint powers agreement between the city council and the board of supervisors at a special joint meeting held Nov. 18, 2013 at the Veterans Memorial Hall, collects $200,000 from each entity annually through 2028 for a total $6 million commitment to the pool project over 15 years. The authority’s board of directors is comprised of supervisors Larry Wosick and Jim Chapman, Susanville Mayor Brian Wilson, councilmember Nicolas McBride and public member Dave Meserve. Chapman and Wilson came up with idea to form the joint powers authority to build a community pool last year.

Complacency easily can creep into our daily lives if we don’t remain vigilant

Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014 — Not too long ago I failed to notice a rattlesnake next to a trail within the lower elevation of the Lassen National Forest. Hearing a rustling in the leaves, I stopped to look thinking it was a lizard but then heard the rattle as it slithered off to coil beneath a tree.

I was thankful I had avoided an encounter with the poisonous snake so far from medical care. However, I realized I had become complacent when it comes to watching for rattlesnakes, because I now live in an area where they are not common. During that same outing I almost brushed against poison oak as well but was warned by a companion. Again, raised in the foothills of El Dorado County, I should have recognized the leaf.

Community shows support for our wounded warriors

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014 — The residents of Lassen County and the city of Susanville enjoy a justly earned reputation for helping those in need. Last week the community’s largess reached far beyond the county line to offer assistance to Marine Cpl. Joshua Hotaling, a warfighter who lost both legs and part of his right hand in an improvised explosive device blast in Sangin, Afghanistan on May 13, 2011.

Several of the more than 100 participants at a Saturday, Oct. 4 fun run for Hotaling at Susanville Ranch Park noted while the wounded warrior is not a member of our local community, as a United States Marine wounded on the battlefield, he is, nonetheless, one of our own.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place April 5, kick-starting the construction of a new home for Hotaling in Loomis, California.

Newspapers are living, breathing family members

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014 — What do you care most about in life?

Most of us would put family at, or near, the top of such a list. Friends would be there. So would our jobs or businesses, our livelihoods. Our homes. Maybe our pets. Our hobbies and pastimes. Add in those around us: neighbors, the community, etc.

That’s our world, our sphere of influence. Whatever happens to those who inhabit that place in our hearts and lives means something to us.